Maria Shipwreck (1872)
On the early morning of 26 February 1872, the unseaworthy brig Maria, purchased by the New Guinea Gold Prospecting Association – a group of “hare-brained adventurers” according to G. C. Bolton – ran aground on Bramble Reef off Hinchinbrook Island and sank within a few hours.
While most of those on board the Maria survived the wreck, a fatal encounter with the Djiru people led to a punitive expedition under Captain John Moresby. This expedition discovered Mourilyan Harbour, the Moresby River and the Gladys River (later identified as the Johnstone River). Moresby’s findings prompted the Queensland Government’s 1872 Northeast Coast Expedition, led by George Elphinstone Dalrymple.
